Short Change: Pilot project for insurance policy digitisation from July 1

Insurance regulator Irda has recently said that the pilot project for digitisation of insurance policies would start from July 1. “During the pilot launch, each life insurer shall convert a minimum of 1,000 or 5 per cent of the existing individual policies (issued in hard form and currently in force) whichever is less for each of the Insurance Repositories (IRs) into electronic form,” Irda said in statement.  This shall be, however, subject to a minimum of 250 policies per IR, it said. The pilot launch will be for duration of 2 months with effect from July 1 and it would be mandatory for all the life insurers and the ‘Insurance Repositories’ to participate in the pilot launch. During the pilot launch, it said, an insurer will not deny any request for electronic policy-both for conversion of existing policies and for issuance of new policies from any of the policyholders.

Edelweiss Mutual Fund launches open-ended equity scheme

Edelweiss Mutual Fund launched an open-ended equity scheme ‘Edelweiss Arbitrage Fund’ on June 12. The subscription for the fund will close on June 20. It seeks to generate income by predominantly investing in arbitrage opportunities in the cash and derivative segments of the equity markets as well as the arbitrage opportunities available within the derivative segment and invest the balance in debt and money market instruments, the company said in a statement. 

Fund raising via private placement bonds hit 9-month low in May

Indian companies mopped up over Rs 9,000 crore through private placement of corporate debt securities or bonds in May, the lowest in nine months. In debt private placements, firms issue debt securities or bonds to institutional investors to raise capital. According to the data available with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), companies garnered in May a total of Rs 9,070 crore from debt on a private placement basis through 83 issues.  This was the lowest amount raised by companies through private placement of debt securities in a month since August 2013, when they had garnered Rs 2,089 crore. 

National Insurance Corporation targets R12,800 crore premium income

Public sector non-life insurer National Insurance Corporation expects to garner premium income worth Rs 12,800 crore in the current financial year, a top company official said. “This fiscal, we are targeting a premium income of Rs 12,800 crore, as compared to Rs 10,261 crore in the previous fiscal,” NIC acting chairman AV Girija Kumar said. During April and May, NIC’s premium income grew higher than the industry, he added. “During April and May this fiscal, NIC’s premium income grew 12.8 per cent, as compared to nine per cent in the overall non-life sector,” Kumar said. Last fiscal, NIC’s growth was higher at 12 per cent against the industry growth of 20 per cent. Asked about market share, Kumar said NIC’s share was 25 per cent among the four public sector non-life insurers.